Reese (Pack of Misfits #2) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,82
three hours. The first time, we were on the road for a couple hours when the front tire suddenly blew out. Luckily, Toby had a spare, so Luca easily changed it for him, and we were back on our way.
We thought we were good to go...until the whole thing started shaking. It took Luca thirty minutes to figure out that it was the brake caliper sticking. Whatever the hell that means.
So when the check engine light came on not even a half hour after that, Luca was glaring daggers into the back of Toby’s head, ready to throttle him. Toby assured him that, “it’s cool, the light comes on all the time. It’s no big deal.”
Clearly, he was wrong.
“She just got a little overheated, that’s all,” Toby is telling Luca. “No harm, no foul, right?”
“You’re lucky I put coolant in the back of the bus before we left,” Luca replies. “It’s still too damn hot for me to open the radiator cap. We’ll have to wait a bit longer.”
Toby claps him on the back. “That’s why you’re the best damn mechanic in the pack.”
My vulture doesn’t look at all appeased. “There are only three of us, and adding coolant has nothing to do with being a mechanic. You should have made sure to check your fluids before we left, like a responsible vehicle owner.”
“My bad,” Toby says sheepishly.
When the bus cools down enough for Luca to remove the radiator cap and add coolant, we’re on our way again. It’s getting late because of all the delays we’ve had and the fact that we didn’t all manage to drag our butts back to the cars until almost noon. Being a six hour drive, this means we’re that much further out from getting back to the compound.
With the bus working again, Luca sits next to me in the back, where Wynn is snoring with her face smashed against the window.
By the time we finally make it to the Pack Aberrant gate, it’s almost ten o’clock at night, and everyone is tired and cranky. Well, except for Wynn. She napped through the entire thing.
In fact, she’s napping right now, even as Mitzy steers the bus while Luca, Toby, and the rest of us passengers push the bus through the gate. Yep, push. Because the bus sputtered and died.
We had to coast it the last four miles, and then we had to get out and push the damn thing the rest of the way once we turned on the road toward the compound. I think Toby’s ears are permanently red from all the harassment and grumbling he’s received.
Everyone unloads their things, and Luca helps me out of the bus with a hand on my elbow.
“That was fun, right?” Toby calls. Several people flip him off. “Okay, we’ll do it again soon!”
Luca rolls his eyes.
As everyone splits off to head to their respective warehouses, Luca pulls me toward him. “Stay with me tonight.”
I swallow at the sexy tone in his voice, looking up at him in the shadowed light. With his attention focused on me like this, it makes my body heat up. “Okay.”
He tugs me toward Warehouse One, and maybe some of the others would’ve razzed us about it if it hadn’t been such a long day. But luckily, no one says a word as he pulls me along, inside the warehouse and up the stairs.
I’m mindful of every single step. Of his strong hand cupping my bare arm. Of the way he squeezes slightly, like he’s using restraint not to haul me over his shoulder and carry me to his bed.
When he unlocks his door and leads me inside, neither of us speak. I rest my back against the door, shutting it with my weight, and then we stare at each other, with only the barely-there moonlight filtering in through the window.
“I need you to be very quiet.”
I swallow at his rumbled command. There’s a part of me—and maybe it has to do with me being a prey shifter—that likes it when a male shows dominance.
Licking my lips, I nod.
“Good.” His dark eyes flick down to my hands hanging at my sides. “Palms flat on the door, Reese.”
Sexy sharp cheddar, the way he says my name…
“Now.”
Is it shameful that his impatient demand just made my clit throb?
Turning my hands, I press my palms flat against the door, and then I wait. I wait for his next move. I wait for his touch. I wait for him to speak.